For years Kirk Jones said it was possible to survive a jump from the top of Niagara Falls and wanted to prove it.

Shocked friends and family thought it was just talk until Monday when the 40-year-old became the first person known to have survived a drop from the falls without safety devices.

"It was an impulsive one-second thing and in a second and a half I was in the water," said Jones, of Canton, Michigan, last night.

"I was in the water for about eight seconds. I was immediately enveloped by what seemed like tons of water."

His brother, Keith, aged 45, said he believed his brother was a little depressed but not suicidal after their parents closed the family tool business and moved to Oregon a week ago.

"I think he was feeling a little sorry for himself and so he wanted to pull this stunt," he said. "He accomplished what he set out to accomplish. It's his claim to fame."

His father, Raymond, aged 80, said his son liked doing "strange things".

"I couldn't believe he did it and that he survived. He's got a lot more courage than I do. He's a very strong boy, a strong swimmer," his father said.

But his mother, Doris, 77, said her son injured his hip in the jump. "We would rather he hadn't done that," she said from her sister's home in Oregon. "I don't understand why he risked it."

Jones will be charged with illegally performing a stunt and could be fined &#xA3;6,500. He is now in hospital in Niagara Falls in a stable condition.

A friend and neighbour, Eric Fronek, aged 21, said that before Jones went to the falls he told him: `If I go over and I live, I am going to make some money'."

Jones, who had worked in the family business, said he planned to jump during a holiday last month with his parents, according to Keith. "He had a spot picked out. But then he came back and he didn't do it."